CAPT Martin John Toohey RAN
Eulogy delivered on 25 June 2021
By CAPT Dale Stephens RAN
(Prepared with the assistance of CAPT Mark Fitzpatrick RAN)
We have lost a fine officer who commanded great respect and esteem from not only those who worked directly with him, but across the Navy family and the Australian Defence Force at large.
Martin Toohey was the embodiment of the Navy, its values, and its behaviours.
Martin had an extensive and rich career in the RAN before being finally posted to shore on retirement from the reserve in 2009 as a Navy Captain. He did it the hard way, joining as a junior sailor recruit in 1965. He qualified as communication rating and saw service ashore and at sea in times of peace and war. In between, he was promoted to and passed through almost every naval rank and despite the commitment that his naval duties took, managed to successfully study law, and qualify as a legal practitioner.
While in the Navy, his roles were as diverse as a naval communicator, a naval police coxswain, and finally, and most indelibly, an ADF Legal Officer, including a posting as the Director of the Naval Legal Service and an appointment as a Defence Force Magistrate.
Martin’s 44 years in the Permanent Navy and then the Reserve saw the complete transition of the Navy from the analogue era where the experiences of World War Two still resonated to the fully digitalised one we have now and where the challenges and emerging threats are similar but are of a different hue. His own experience gave him a unique insight into how the Navy and, by extension the Australian Defence Force, worked. He had served many years at sea with his crew mates, had navigated the discipline system with very hands-on experience of conducting and overseeing investigations as a Naval Police Coxswain and had been involved in and driven key decisions in broader areas of strategic Defence legal policy. This composite experience proved to be valuable and one that generated a genuine humility and empathy towards those he served with.
Martin was a veteran of the Vietnam War and this background gave him tremendous insight into how the Navy operated in a time of armed conflict. For many of us ‘wet behind the ears’ young legal officers, his perspective and insight about the Navy in actual combat operations was invaluable to our own learning in the 1990’s when the ADF was plunged back into multiple operations across the globe.
I first met Martin in January of 1990. On my first day in Navy Office, the then Director of Naval Legal Services (DNLS) CAPT Tom Stodulka and then Deputy DNLS CMDR Helen Marks explained that I would be sharing an office with a senior officer when he shortly returned from leave, namely CMDR Martin Toohey. I was very anxious about this prospect, him with 25 years’ experience in the Navy and me with 5 minutes and us sharing an office, I really didn’t know what to expect. Suffice to say that when he did return, it was a joy to meet Martin and by morning tea on that very first morning I knew that I had found a mentor and man who I knew I could trust and learn much from.
Martin had the envious capacity to make you feel like you were important, and he genuinely listened to what you had to say. It felt like your views mattered and that he was seriously reflecting upon them, and this did much for your self-confidence.
You see Martin had what is often described as the ‘common touch’. He could advise the Navy top brass on major matters with great eloquence and confidence and at the other end of the command spectrum, he could make the most junior Legal Officer comfortable in his presence. He mixed easily socially across ranks but never forgot his responsibilities as a naval officer.
He encouraged discussion and was always capable of listening to opposing views on an issue. But after listening to all views, he was prepared to make decisions and take responsibility for them and to exercise all necessary authority of a senior officer when the occasion demanded. His legal opinions were delivered without fear or favour.
While his core legal speciality was Military Justice, it was clear to everybody that he had an insatiable curiosity about all areas of law and constantly strove to master all these areas and topics. In the mid 1990’s he was seconded to Cambridge University in the UK to undertake a reading course in international maritime law with senior academics at that prestigious University. I recall fondly the many conversations we had upon his return about the law applicable to peacetime maritime operations as well as developing issues regarding the law of naval warfare.
That insatiable curiosity and quest for knowledge was on full display when he and Karen visited my wife and I in Boston in the mid 2000’s. Upon arriving at our home, he told me that there were three things he wanted to see during his visit, namely the USS Constitution in Boston Harbour, the John Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum located at The University of Massachusetts and the famous Cheers Bar … I would add that this wasn’t necessarily his order of priority for visiting these famous landmarks J.
During the visit to the USS Constitution, he was riveted with the facts and figures of this illustrious American fighting ship. He asked many, many questions of the tour guide about the living conditions of the sailors below decks – no doubt drawing on his own experience – about the fighting capability of this ship and the strategy of the American Admirals during the war of 1812. He had every base covered and it was clear to me the US Navy tour guide genuinely appreciated the well informed and knowledgeable questions. The incredibly rich dialogue had us all transfixed with the depth of knowledge and information exchange.
The JFK Presidential library and museum deeply touched a chord with Martin. You could see the reverence and solemnity of the occasion truly moved him. He would dwell on each exhibit and specific story about this US President, and I sensed that he was drawing his own inspiration from this famous life. Not surprisingly, perhaps, the specific exhibit which attracted his most attention was the one of President Kennedy’s wartime experience in the US Navy during the Second World War. We were literally the last two people in the building at closing time and even so, his credit card got an extensive last-minute workout at the well-stocked gift shop in the library as they were physically closing the doors and frantically ushering us out.
Martin was a very generous man – in fact one of the most generous people I knew. This was not just in terms of material generosity, but in terms of generosity of spirit. He would genuinely empathise with you and want to support you in all that you did. He recognised the hopes, dreams and aspirations in everybody and wanted to do what he could to support people, especially junior officers, in achieving these. He treated people with kindness and respect and lived his life treating others as he would like to be treated. This extended to people in his professional life, people in his personal life and everyone in between. He was also a man of considerable conviction. When he found a good cause he steadfastly and courageously supported that cause, whether it be people, ideas or even his beloved Essendon Bombers in their darkest days – he was always a rock of conviction and moral courage.
Martin was fond of quoting Rear Admiral Sir David Martin’s view that Navy was a family – Martin Toohey genuinely did see the Navy and the ADF as his broader family. He recognised that service in the ADF wasn’t just another job, but it went deeper than that and it generated responsibilities to our fellow ADF members that meant something, and this infused our very lives. He was DNLS at a time when it was decided that Navy, Army and Air Force Legal branches would co-locate as a first step to amalgamating. It seems very strange now to think that there was enormous anxiety and nervousness about what a unified tri-service Defence Legal would mean, but there was. Martin was the leader at this critical time when that first occurred. His professionalism, faith and support in his people during this key moment was unwavering. This allowed these decisive steps to be taken smoothly and without fuss and to be done in a manner that built the very foundations for the successful Defence Legal organization that we have today.
Martin remained an active member of the Navy reserve after the completion of his permanent service.
On leaving permanent naval service, his talents were in demand outside Navy and he held important senior legal positions in civilian life in several appointments as the courts’ administrator in both the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory legal jurisdictions.
He also worked in private practice here in Canberra.
In all, he had a rich and varied legal career.
With Martin’s passing, a very bright star has gone out in the night sky. We can draw from Martin the lessons of kindness, courage and humility. In remembering him and living our lives by these virtues we can honour him and celebrate all the many things that he meant to us.
Martin, on behalf of the Navy family and the Australian people,
Thank you for your loyal and dedicated service.
In the words of the Navy farewell, may we wish you fair winds and following seas.
You will be sadly missed, but remembered with great admiration, love and respect.